Web deleaver with overriding drive means



May 26, 1970 H. K. ABSLER ET WEB DELEAVER WITH OVERRIDING DRIVE MEANS 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 13, 1967 fmvrvreys y 1970 H. K. ABSLER ETAL 3,514,094

WEB DELEAVER WITH OVERRIDING DRIVE MEANS Filed June 13. 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 26, 1970 H. K. ABSLER ETAL 3,514,094

WEB DELEAVER WITH OVERRIDING DRIVE MEANS 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 13. 1967 May 26, 1970 H. K. ABSLER ETAL 3,514,094

WEB DELEAVER WITH OVERRIDING DRIVE MEANS Filed June 13. 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet 4.

U N w mum May 26, 1970 H. K. ABSLER T 3,514,094

WEB DELEAVER WITH OVERRIDING DRIVE MEANS 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 13, 1967 United States Patent 0 3,514,094 WEB DELEAVER WITH OVERRIDING DRIVE MEANS Howard K. Ahsler, Skokie, and Leonard M. Narel, Cary,

Ill., assignors to Uarco Incorporated, a corporation of Illinois Filed June 13, 1967, Ser. No. 645,830 Int. Cl. B65h 41/00, 17/02 U.S. Cl. 270-525 12 Claims ABSTRAET OF THE DISCLOSURE A stationery deleaver for separating multiple plies of stationery from a folded stack into a plurality of individual folded stacks of single plies of stationery. Pin feed wheels at the infeed end of the deleaver are driven by means of an overriding clutch so that when carbon interleaved stacks are being deleaved, faster driven carbon rewind reels and paper drive rollers control the speed of stationery and carbon. In addition, stationery having no pin feed holes can be driven through the machine. When deleaving carbonless forms with pin feed holes, the pin Wheels advance the stationery through the deleaver.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This application relates to deleaver mechanisms for separating folded stacks of multiple plies of continuous form stationery into individual folded stacks of single plies of stationery.

Description of prior art Deleaving apparatuses of the same general type as the deleaver of this invention which are presently in commercial use include a frame having an infeed end with driven pin wheels for feeding the stationery material through the deleaver by engagement with the perforated margins of the stationery. Adjacent the driven pin wheels are trimming mechanisms for removing marginal material, such as the control punch holes in the margin. Next in the path of stationery travel are a plurality of inclined paper guides, at the top of which are rollers. Individual plies of stationery are webbed over each inclined paper guide and carbon paper, if interleaved in the original stack, is wrapped around a carbon rewind spindle.

The theory of operation of these currently marketed devices is that the pin feed wheel at the infeed end of the machine drives the paper through the machine.

Carbon rewind wheels in such devices are driven by friction clutches with the torque thereof fixed as an initial adjustment prior to running a pack of stationery through the machine. The initial setting is at an amount of torque that will not quite pull the stationery off the pinfeed wheels when the rewind wheels are just starting and carbon tension is high. As the carbon rewind builds up in diameter, the carbon tension decreases until finally the torque available is not suflicient to continue rewinding the carbon. If the initial torque is low, the carbon is rewound loosely which results in a bigger diameter for a given footage and also an imbalance roll which will stop rewinding sooner.

Since the greatest time consuming factor of the deleaving process is setup time, it is desirable to eliminate all subsequent setups or adjustments after the initial setup. To this end, the instant invention is directed.

Prior art patents assigned to the assignee of this invention which are directed to deleaver mechanism include Pine Pat. No. 3,143,342 entitled Deleaver Stand and 3,514,094 Patented May 26, 1970 "ice Pine et al. Pat. No. 3,079,142 entitled Deleaver for Continuous Form Stationery. In the former Pine et al. patent, the stationery stack is positioned on end and is webbed around rollers with the plane of direction of the stack of the 1plies changed for subsequent refolding into one single stac In the Pine et a1. Pat. No. 3,079,142, a stationery stack of several plies may be separated into several stacks of individual plies of stationery. Here there are no pin feed Wheels in the machine for driving the stationery through the machine. Instead, the stationery is propelled by a single driven roller assembly. Also, there is no provision for the carbon reels having any driving influence. Instead the carbon reels are subordinate to the propelling means provided by the main driven roller assembly.

Sornberger Pat. No. 2,805,855 shows a deleaving mechanism wherein a multiple ply folded stack is separated into one stack of single plies and another stack of remaining plies. In this structure, one roller is utilized to drive the separated ply and carbon sheet, and another roller is utilized to drive the remaining plies and carbon sheets.

The Pine Pat. No. 3,386,729 assigned to the assignee of this invention, also discloses a deleaver mechanism wherein the multiple ply stack is separated into one stack of a single ply of stationery and another stack of remaining plies. In Pine Pat. No. 3,386,729, the stationery is driven by two rollers, one for driving the separated ply, and the other for driving the remaining plies. Driven rewind reels take up the carbon sheet adjacent the separated ply. The carbon sheet and stationery ply are fed together for some distance downwardly along an arcuate paper guide. The carbon sheet is returned upwardly around a wrap bar to a driven rewind reel. Since only one ply is being separated from the multiple stack into a single stack, no effort is made for the speed of the carbon rewind reel to govern the speed of stationery travel. In the aforementioned Pine patent, refold shelves at the bottom of the arcuate paper guides are inclined upwardly relative thereto and are provided with recesses adjacent the terminal end of the paper guides for encouraging generally flat refolding stack and preventing initial stack arching.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is directed, in brief, to the provision of a stationery deleaver for separating multiple plies of stationery from a folded stack into a plurality of individual folded stacks of a single ply of stationery, wherein the deleaver is provided with pin feed wheels at the infeed end of the machine which are driven through an overriding clutch mechanism; driven paper feeding rollers at the top of a plurality of tandem arranged paper guides; and driven carbon rewind reels adjacent each paper guide, the carbon rewind reels being driven continuously at a faster rate of surface speed than the pin feed wheels so that when deleaving stationery interleaved with carbon sheets, the pin feed wheels will act only as idlers for maintaining alignment of the stationery. The paper rollers at the top of the arcuate paper guides are initially driven at a rate of surface speed faster than the rewind reels but at the end of the run of a stack of stationery, the speed of the rewind reels and driven paper rollers is nearly the same. Also, trimmer apparatus may be provided at the infeed end of the deleaver which may be initially driven much faster than the base speed of the rewind spindles and slightly faster than the speed of the rewind spindles at the end of a run of a stack of stationery.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the deleaver of this invention showing the deleaving operation in separating a zig-zag folded stack of four plies of stationery with 3 three plies of carbon interleaved into four individual stacks of single plies of stationery;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary broken enlarged top plan view of the deleaver shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged broken side elevational view of the deleaver with a portion broken away to show the drive train thereof;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged top plan broken view of the infeed portion of the deleaver; and

FIG. 5 is a section view of the infeed portion of the deleaver taken generally along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in FIG. 1, the deleaver of this invention is intended for use in deleaving a zig-zag folded stack of stationery 11, initially supported on a shelf 11a at the infeed end of the stationery, to remove the individual plies of stationery 12 from the stack and refold the individual plies into individual stacks 12a of single plies of station ery. If the stacks 11 is also interleaved with carbon strips 14, these strips are also separated and collected for disposal.

The deleaver 10 includes a housing generally indicated 16 which encloses the functional components of the deleaver as well as frame assembly, generally indicated 18 in FIG. 3. With further general reference to FIG. 3, the frame supports, and the housing encloses, motor means 20 for driving functional components of the deleaver. The motor 20 drives a motor drive belt 22 which rotates a master compound pulley 24 about which the main deleaver drive belt 26 is reeved.

Referring now to FIGS. 2, 4 and 5, the infeed end of the deleaver includes a pair of laterally spaced frame plates 30a and 3015. A tension bar assembly 32 spans the area between the plates and includes a tension bar 34 and a tie rod 36, to which are connected paper guides 38. The paper guides 38 are movably related to the tension bar and tie rods to provide a means for initially guiding stationery into the deleaver.

A pin wheel assembly 42 is mounted in the infeed area of the deleaver and includes a pair of pin wheels 44 having radially outwardly extending pins 46 for engaging pin feed openings in marginal areas of continuous form stationery. The pin wheels 44 are spaced apart on a driven pin wheel shaft 48 which is mounted between plates 30a and 30b. Shaft 48 has a longitudinal slot 50, and the pin wheels are keyed to the shaft by means of a key 52 which is positioned in slot and engages the pin wheel 44. Key pin 54 provides a frictional contact of key 52 in keyway 50 so that the pinwheel can be moved to selected positions along the length of the pin wheel shaft 48. This provides a means for adjusting the distance between the pin wheels for accepting stationery of diiferent widths. A paper hold-down means 55 is positioned over a portion of the periphery of each pin feed wheel 44 and is provided wih a slot 55a which permits the pins 46 to project slightly therethrough. This general structure of the pin wheel assembly and tension bar assembly is known in the art and is generally typical of mechanisms which drive stationery by means of engagement with the pin feed holes in the marginal areas of the stationery.

Pin wheel shaft 48 has a reduced end 56 on which is mounted a combination pulley and clutch housing 58, The combination pulley and clutch housing 58 has a stepped bore 60 and is fastened to the reduced end 56 by means such as grip ring 62. The stepped bore receives a bearing 64 which is interposed between the pulley and clutch housing 58 and the reduced end of the shaft 56 to permit relative rotation between the two. In addition, in the enlarged area of the stepped bore, an overriding clutch means 66 is provided. This overriding clutch is preferably of the type manufactured by the Mini-Clutch Company and identified as Model No. HU64B6R. Generally speaking, the clutch is affixed to shaft 48 and normally transmits driving power to the shaft 48 from pulley 58 when the pulley is rotated by belt 26. However, when stationery in engagement with pin wheels 46 is pulled at a rate of speed faster than that imparted by the pin wheels through the driving connection of pulley housing 58 with clutch 66, an overriding relationship is established between the clutch and the housing 58 to permit shaft 48 to rotate at a speed faster than that at which it would be driven through the clutch means.

Cross rods 72 are provided to support spacers 72a for gripping and holding longitudinal guides 74 which provide a means for supporting the stationery through the infeed station.

The infeed station further includes a slitter or trimmer assembly 76 including a pair of trimmer units 78 mounted on shafts 80a and 80b. Shaft 80a is driven by trimmer. pulley 82, and gear 82a at the opposite end of shaft 80a engages similar gear (not shown) on shaft 80b. In gen-. eral, the trimmer assembly disclosed herein is substantially the same as that disclosed in Pine et a1. Pat. No. 3,185,007 and Meter et al. Pat. No. 3,185,009, both patents issued on May 25, 1965. As disclosed in the aforesaid patents, the two trimmer units are mounted on another shaft 84 so that they may be laterally moved to adjust for different widths of stationery which are fed through the infeed station.

With particular reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a plurality of stationery drive rollers 86 are mounted on the housing 16 across the path of travel of stationery 12 beyond the infeed station. These rollers are driven through a drive mechanism to be explained later. Preferably these rollers have an exterior with a high coefficient of friction to drive the stationery by surface engagement therewith.

Arcuate paper guides 88 extend downwardly and away from each of the rollers 86. Wrap around bars 90 are removably mounted on the housing 16 closely adjacent the lower end of each paper guide 88. The several bars 90 may be disconnected from the housing 16 when the deleaver is being utilized to deleave carbonless stacks of stationery to permit free descent of the stationery without interference from the rods 90. At the first paper guide 88, an alternate position 90a is proivded for the wrap bar so that the carbon will have to descend a greater distance along the length of paper descent before being returned upwardly to the carbon rewind reels 92. This provides improved refolding qualities when multiple plies are being refolded in this area. The carbon rewind reels are also driven through drive mechanism to be explained later. Each rewind reel includes a plurality of rods 90a which extend outwardly from the reel. Preferably there are three to six rods to insure that as the carbon is wrapped by the driven action of the wheels, a substantially round configuration will be obtained to afford smooth rewrap and drive capabilities.

A stationery sheet and the carbon sheet thereabove are webbed over a drive roller 86 and down the paper guide 88. The carbon is wrapped around bar 90 and returned upwardly to rewind reel 92. This arrangement causes the carbon strip to hold the stationary strip closely adjacent the paper guide, resulting in improved refolding of stacks 12a and permitting a higher rate of speed of paper feed.

Angled refold shelves 94 are provided below the terminal end of each of the paper guides 88, each of the refold shelves being recessed as shown at 96 to insure that the stacks will be refolded in a generally flat configuration. The lower end of the first paper guide 88 is shortened relative to the remaining paper guides and a mutually inwardly facing refold shelf 98 is opposite shelf 94 so that multiple ply refold may be accomplished by first directing the refolding operation in the area of the trough formed by the mutual inward incline operation of shelves 94 and 98. Shelf 100 at the rear of the machine accepts the first separated ply of stationery into its refold stack 12a, and may be removed along with shelf 11a, when the machine is not in use to reduce the overall envelope of the machine.

Generally speaking, the structure described with respect to reference numerals 88 through 98 is similar to that found in the Pine Pat. No. 3,386,729 entitled Deleaver, filed July 16, 1965, and assigned to the assignee of this invention.

A hold-down assembly 102 is provided for the last roller 86 or that roller which separates the uppermost stationery sheet 12 from the remaining plies and therefore does not have a carbon sheet thereabove. This roller assembly includes a roller arm 104 which has a transversely extending end portion 104a. End portion 104a is mounted in bracket 106 for rotation with respect thereto by means of collars 108. The free end of arm -4 supports a freely rotatable wheel 110, such as a caster wheel or the like, which is fixed in its position with respect to the rod by means such as grip rings 112. This provides a means for maintaining the uppermost stationery ply closely adjacent drive roller 86 and properly directed in its downward path of travel since there is no carbon sheet 14 thereabove which may assist in this movement.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the drive train includes a plurality of casings 116 mounted in the frame (only one of which is shown for clarity of illustration), each of which rotatably supports a pluarity of pulleys for driving the stationery drive rollers and carbon rewind reels. Belt 26 first engages idler pulley 118 and then engages a portion of the periphery of pulley 120 which is part of the carbon rewind assembly 92. Belt 26 is then reeved about adjustment pulley 122 which is movably mounted in slot 124 of arm portion 126. The function of pulley 122 is to change the wrap on pulley 120, to regulate the maximum torque that can be transmitted through this pulley. While the the machine is running, the maximum torque could theoretically be infinite; but during initial setup, the torque should be low enough to permit manual rotation of the rewind assembly 92 in order to get the carbon plies started without rotating all of the other elements of the drive assembly.

From pulley 122, belt 26 is reeved about pulley 128 which is part of the stationery drive roller 86. The belt is then reeved about idler 130 on the illustrated member 116 and returned about pulley 58 which drives the pin feed assembly, passing over pulleys 130 in the return path of travel. From pulley 58, the belt is wound downwardly and about idler 132 which is mounted for adjustment in an upright slot 132a. The belt returns upwardly from pulley 132 and is wrapped about pulley 82 which drives the trimmer assembly.

Preferably the diameter of the several pulleys and the circumference of the stationery drive rollers 86, the carbon rewind reels 92 and the pin wheels 48 as well as the slitter mechanism in the trimmer assembly (not shown) is such that the speed ratio of the several components is the follows:

RELATIVE SURFACE SPEED OF COMPONENTS Start of run End of run 1,100 (no carbon) of carbon Carbon rewind reels Base speed- Base speed. Stationery drive rollers 29% faster".-. Do. Last stationery drive roller 49% faster... 16% faster. Slitter 52% faster 17% faster. Pinfeed wheels 4% taster slower (overriding).

This adjustment has been a constant problem in the art, especially in view of the fact that the surface speed of the rewind reels is constantly changing because the diame ter of the reels changes as the amount of carbon collected on the reels increases. With this problem of balancing the speed between these components obviated, one of the main causes of stationery misfold is eliminated.

In addition, the disclosed deleaver is versatile in that stationery with or without pin feed openings may be deleaved. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the deleaver may separate stationery into four plies; therefore, a four ply stack could be completely deleaved and a stack of a greater number of plies than four would be deleaved into three individual stacks and a multiple refold stack which could be subsequently passed through the deleaver again. If the six ply form were being deleaved, the first three plies could be deleaved through the first pass through the deleaver and the margins trimmed by the trimmer mechanism at that time. During the second pass through the deleaver, the remaining three plies would be pulled by the rewind reels and the pin wheels and the trimmer mechanism would perform no function. With the currently commercially available deleaver mechanisms previously described, this could not be accomplished without deleaving on a separate machine which did not utilize pin wheels as a motive force.

Although the pin feed wheels are generally subordinate to the carbon rewind reels as a driving force, they may be used for advancing stationery through the deleaver when the folded stack is not provided with interleaved carbon sheets. In addition, they serve as a brake means so that during the initial webbing of the stationery, the stationery will not run backwards but will be positively held in position. As illustrated in the above chart, in the preferred embodiment the pin wheels are driven at an initial rate of surface speed approximately four percent faster than that of the rewind reels. However, the diameter of the rewind reels soon increases so that the surface speed of the reels overcomes that of the pin feed wheels and for most of the deleaving operation the rewind reels are the elfective motive force for pulling stationery and carbon through the deleaver assisted by the stationery drive rollers with the pin feed wheels having no driving influence but only performing the aligning function. Finally, all of the transfer material of a pack of stationery may 'be rewound without interruption.

The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness of understanding only, and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom, as some modifications maybe obvious to those skilled in the art.

We claim:

1. A mechanism for deleaving interfolded stacks of stationery into individual folded stacks of single plies of stationery, comprising: first stationery engaging means in the path of travel of the stationery for engaging portions thereof to advance the same; means beyond the stationery engaging means for collecting carbon webs interleaved in the stack; and first drive means for driving said stationery engaging means and said carbon sheet collecting means, said carbon sheet collecting means being driven at a faster rate of surface speed than the stationery engaging means, and means responsive to said stationery being pulled through said stationery engaging means to disengage said stationery engaging means from said drive means whereby, when forms with interleaved carbon sheets are being deleaved, the stationery engaging means does not perform an advancing function by reason of being disengaged from said drive means.

2. The deleaver mechanism of claim 1 wherein said stationery engaging means comprises pin drive members which are constructed and arranged to engage pin feed openings in the marginal areas of stationery which may be fed through the deleaver.

3. The deleaver mechanism of claim 2 which further includes stationery drive means in the path of travel of 7 stationery beyond the stationery engaging means and in advance of the carbon sheet collecting means, said stationery drive means being driven by the first drive means for engaging the surface of the stationery and advancing the same through the deleaver.

4. The deleaver mechanism of claim 3 wherein the stationery drive means is driven at a faster rate of surface speed than the pin drive member.

5. The deleaver mechanism of claim 4 wherein the stationery drive means is driven at a rate slower than the surface speed of the rewind means.

6. The deleaver mechanism of claim 5 including trimmer means in the path of stationery travel for removing marginal material from the stationery, said trimmer means being driven at a faster rate of surface speed than said pin drive member.

7. The deleaver mechanism of claim 1 wherein said stationery engaging means is associated with said first drive means for overriding clutch means responsive to higher speeds imparted to said engaging means by stationery pulled by said carbon sheet collecting means, disengagement of said engaging means from said first drive means resulting from the engaging means being overridden b the faster rate of speed of the carbon sheet collecting means.

8. The deleaver mechanism of claim 3 wherein arcuate paper guides extend downwardly and away from the stationery drive means and means are provided towards the lower end of the stationery guides for reversely wrapping a carbon sheet thereabout to web the same to the carbon collecting means which is positioned above said reverse wrapping means so that the faster driven carbon sheets pull the interleaved stationery sheet downwardly a substantial distance along the arcuate paper guides.

9. An apparatus for separating interfolded stacks of multiple plies of strips of stationery and transfer material into a plurality of individual stacks of single plies of folded stationery, comprising: housing means having means defining a path of stationery travel therethrough; drive means in said housing; a pin feed wheel in the path of stationery travel for engaging perforated marginal edges of stationery to advance the same, said pin feed wheel being connected to said drive means by overriding means so that said pin wheels may be responsive to a higher rate of speed imparted thereto by the stationery in engagement with the pin wheel to override the driving connection from the drive means and rotate freely in engagement with the stationery; and a rewind reel in the path of stationery travel beyond said pin wheel for collecting transfer material, said rewind reel being driven by said drive means at a faster rate of surface speed than said pin wheel whereby when forms with interleaved transfer strips are being deleaved, the rewind reel provides the motive force for pulling the stationery and transfer strips through the deleaver.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 including a stationery driving roller interposed in the path of travel of the stationery between the pin feed wheel and the rewind reel, the stationery driving roller being driven at a faster rate of surface speed than the pin feed wheel.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further including marginal trimming means interposed in the path of travel of the stationery between the pin feed wheel and the stationery driving roller, the trimming means being driven at a faster rate of surface speed than the pin feed wheel.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the relative surface speed of the several components is in the approximate ratio of the herein disclosed chart entitled Relative Surface Speed of Components.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,845,232 7/ 1958 Johnson et al. 242-672 FOREIGN PATENTS 706,209 3/ 1965 Canada.

EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner P. V. WILLIAMS, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 24267.2 

